How general practitioners store vaccines: A survey in south‐western Sydney

Objective: To describe how general practitioners store vaccines. Design: A cross‐sectional descriptive survey of general practices and observation of storage procedures for vaccines. Setting: South‐western Sydney between September and December 1993. Participants: 232 randomly selected general practitioners working in south‐western Sydney, of whom 76% responded to a questionnaire. Vaccine storage was observed in 20 general practices. Results: At 80% of practices, one person was responsible for vaccine storage. Only 30% of respondents used a vaccine‐only refrigerator. Only 16% of respondents had a means of measuring temperature, while 5% kept a record of refrigerator temperature. Of the general practices that were monitored, the measured temperature of 70% of the refrigerators used for storing vaccines was within the recommended range of 2°C–8°C. Conclusions: Vaccine storage would improve in general practices in south‐western Sydney if vaccine‐only refrigerators were used and temperature was monitored with maximum–minimum thermometers.